Dan Greenawalt, creative director for Turn 10, describes the evolution of his racing series this way. Forza 2 was about credibility, he said. The team wanted to show that it could compete with the 600-pound gorilla that isGran Turismo. Forza… Continue Reading →

Dan Greenawalt, creative director for Turn 10, describes the evolution of his racing series this way.Forza 2 was about credibility, he said. The team wanted to show that it could compete with the 600-pound gorilla that isGran Turismo.Forza 3 was about broadening the audience and the team succeeded by giving players various ways to gain experience and progress through the game.

When it comes to Forza Motorsports 4, Greenawalt says that’s where all the work comes together. The project sounds as though it’s the culmination of years of work. “It’s going to be a showcase,” he said. “It’s showing what the hardware can do with the graphics.”

And that definitely does happen judging from the few hours I spent with Forza 4 this month. Turn 10 has worked with Hollywood animators and together they developed a new technique called Image-Based Lighting, which gives each vehicle a more realistic look (something I thought wasn’t at all possible).

MORE LEVEL OF DETAIL: All of this creates something that Greenwalt calls a 6-inch level of detail. Certain cars have been rendered so specifically that players in a new Autovista mode can enter the vehicle and check out its interior. The intricacies is so precise that it looks accurate six inches from the actual surface. With the Kinect, exploring these video game cars is the closest players will get to touching the real-life vehicles without being at the dealership.

But not every vehicle is represented. Turn 10 focused on historic cars or ones that have a special significance. Looking at each set of wheels, players can check under the hood and hear Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson narrate, and as a special treat, they included a fictional vehicle — a Warthog from Halo 4.

THE FIRST LAP: But those are the extras. When it comes down to the nitty gritty, Forza 4 hits the ground running. Players begin with a lap around the Alps. It’s a beautiful place and surprisingly the background never has a fishbowl apperance. Everything looks as it should. It borders on the surreal, seeing lakes so high up in the mountains.

I assume that the initial lap helps the game track how good a racer you are. It eases you into the experience. From there, players pick their first car. It won’t be very fast and it won’t be very big. They’re smaller micro cars with an F rating. Mine was an orange 2011 Nissan Micra.

From there I raced through a course in Montserrat, Spain. It’s one of at least 27 locations scattered throughout the globe. Players will compete in different events usually catered to the car that they’re driving. There’s no set structure as players race on tracks around the globe.

Winning my race at Montserrat, I moved on to one of my favorite tracks Road Atlanta. I won that race, too, and as in previous Forza games, I got a credit bonus and affinity award with Nissan vehicles. Some of the prizes players win are badges and titles that they can slap on their racing license. It’s a system that resembles what Capcom did with Street Fighter 4.

A RACER WITH MORE PERSONALITY: But what Forza 4 does more now to separate itself from the pack is that it adds a bit of quirkiness to its gameplay. It’s no longer this cold, robotic racing sim devoid of personality, a complaint from previous efforts. The game branches out and captures the light humor and inventiveness of Top Gear and incorporates it into events such as car bowling.

Yes, you go through the Top Gear test track trying to knock over pins. Each one earns you points and players have to reach a certain quota to beat the stage. It’s not racing per se, but it’s a lot of fun and unusual but fits within the physics-based system and car-centric universe of Forza 4.

I got another win at the Hockenheimring, a coursein Germany. It was a multiheat race with one competition taking place in the morning and the next one in the afternoon. One thing I noticed is that the AI drives more like human players. There are moments when I was in second and speeding to catch up, when all of a sudden, the driver in first place would crash or takes a corner badly and end up mowing the lawn. Some of the accidents can be spectacular, but what’s brilliant is that it all feels organic.

A NOD TO INITIAL D: I went through a few more races and in the Alps again — each locale has multiple tracks — and I took on another contest through Spain, where there was a twist to the rules. Turn 10 but two difference classes of cars on the same track but in separate locations. They call it a multi-class race and it adds a bit of unpredictability to the contest. All the while, I had upgraded my vehicle and eventually got my familiar Mitsubishi Evo.

Eventually, I got to an unusual race down a Japanese mountainside called Fujimi Kaido. It’s a one-on-one match against a Toyota Trueno. I know what you’re thinking. This is exactly like Initial D and Greenwalt said that was the intention. One of Turn 10’s senior designers is Jun Taniguchi, who use to work on the Initial D video games in Japan. The level with its twist and turns is an ode to that anime and his other projects. It’s also one of my favorite parts of the game.

CAR CLUBS AND RIVALS MODE: As for the other social and creative parts, which are just as important to Forza 4, Turn 10 adds more improvements to foster that community. Painting this time around seems easier, more refined. Players will be able to create gorgeous decal designs more easily. They can also important some designs from the previous game, just not liveries.

As for the social aspects, there are now Car Clubs and a Rivals Mode. The Car Club is self explanatory. You and a few friends can create a racing team. Some members may be excellent painters and they can create a custom design for all the vehicles in the club. Another member may be an expert with tuning and they can squeeze every bit of power adjusting the suspension and other aspects of the cars and share that loadout with the team. The group also has collective buying power. Teams can pool their money to get higher-end vehicles and any member can drive it.

Rivals Mode is an asynchronous way to compete against others, almost like Criterion’s Autolog. You can see a person’s time and try to beat it. Every time you try, you’ll earn experience and money so it never feels like a waste of time.

CAR SOCCER: As for multiplayer modes, Turn 10 features normal races and unusual formats such as Cat and Mouse and Virus. But one of the more intriguing ways to play is Top Gear soccer. Basing the concept on an episode of the show, Turn 10 creates a field where players drive a car and they have to knock a ball into the other team’s net. The show did something similar a few years back with Volkswagen Foxes vs. Aygos, but with Forza 4, the concept extends to SUVs and exotic cars, something you wouldn’t do in real life.

From the looks of it, Forza Motorsports 4 is shaping up to be the racer for the year. It certainly captures what Greenwalt was going after. It not only brings together years of knowledge from the development of three games, it also goes a long way to answer the criticisms of yesteryear. With all the new ways to play, it could lead the way and be the most innovative racing game on the market when it’s released Oct. 11.